Arnold Mills Granillo will spend the next 16 years in prison for the beating death of his longtime girlfriend.
Pima County Superior Court Judge Javier Chon-Lopez sentenced Granillo, 50, on Monday for the October 2012 bludgeoning death of Kimberly Tsonetokoy, 45. Granillo’s first trial ended in a mistrial and he was convicted of second-degree murder in the re-trial.
“Whatever it is that caused him to act as he did is not excusable in any way,” Chon-Lopez said at Monday’s sentencing.
Tsonetokoy’s daughter, Amber Ramos, described her mother as her hero.
“Everyone who knows her misses her,” Ramos said.
She and other family members asked the judge to impose the maximum sentenced of 22 years in prison for Tsonetokoy’s killing.
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Deputy Pima County Attorney Lewis Brandes also argued for a harsher prison sentence, saying despite Granillo’s lack of a criminal past and family support he should spend as much time incarcerated as possible.
“The fact that he was a family man and a hard worker, that’s what we’re all supposed to do,” Brandes said.
Defense attorney Joel Feinman described Granillo’s actions the day he beat to death Tsonetokoy as an “aberration.”
“I do not think Arnold is a dangerous man,” Feinman said.
He argued that Granillo’s life as a law-abiding and productive citizen should matter when weighing it against his actions of a few moments the night of the killing.
“He is not only that, he is much more than that,” Feinman said.
Granillo beat to death Tsonetokoy with a crowbar in 2012 in a rage because she decided to end their decade-long relationship.
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